Flexible bulk containers—also known as flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBC)—are used for transporting and storing bulk dry goods. Such bulk goods occur in many fields, such as, for example, sand, cement or soil in the field of building materials; flour, cereal grains etc. in the food field; and, e.g., plastic pellets in the manufacturing industry. The flexible bulk containers may be made of various materials and are characterized in that they are flexible, i.e., that rather than having a rigid form such as cases or cardboard boxes, these containers have bordering faces or walls that give. The containers are more or less sack-like, of various shapes, with or without openings for emptying or filling. The size of the containers and the material they are made from are chosen to suit the cargo with which they are to be filled. For cement having a high specific weight, e.g., smaller sacks are used that often consist of several walls of strong paper. For the transportation of foods, one must see to it that the inside wall of the container is food-compatible, i.e., that no chemical reactions will occur between the food to be transported and the inner wall of the container. For transporting light goods of low specific weight, which allows the use of larger bulk containers, so-called bulk bags, also known as big bags, have become established in prior art.
For transporting such flexible bulk containers, the widely used wooden pallets, including those knows as EUR-pallets, are fit for limited service only. On the one hand, the flexible bulk containers can be damaged by the rough wooden surface, wood splinters sticking out etc. On the other hand, bulk containers having highly flexible side walls will, in the filled state, adapt to the form of the pallet, i.e., due to its weight, the filled bulk container will bulge downward or sag between the deckboards of the wooden pallet, which can, in the worst case, cause the bulk container to be damaged and torn open by the entering tines of the forklift.
Therefore, efforts are being made to find other solutions for the transportation and storage of such flexible bulk containers.
A pallet suitable for the transportation of flexible bulk containers is disclosed, e.g., in US 2013/0136573 A1 and offered by BHA—Bulk Handling Australia. The pallet described in US 2013/0136573 A1 is made of plastic by injection molding. Compared to wood, plastic has the advantage that it can be cast or injected into molds of almost any form; in addition, the surfaces are smoother, which is of advantage for the carriage of flexible bulk containers. On its bottom side, the pallet is provided with tunnel-shaped receptacles, which connect the two opposite sides of the plastic pallet. Plastic pallets for flexible bulk containers generally have a square shape which defines the bearing surface, so that the tunnel-shaped receptacles connect two parallel, opposite sides of such a square. In another embodiment, the pallet exhibits four tunnel-shaped receptacles, which are arranged in pairs crossing each other. Thus, each side of the square pallet is connected with the respective opposite side by tunnel-shaped receptacles. These tunnel-shaped apertures are adapted to permit the tines of a forklift to enter these apertures and pick up the pallet. Between the tunnel-shaped receptacles, which are open at the bottom, there is a central, closed area. On top of the tunnel-shaped configurations there are raised elements A, which stiffen the structure of the pallet. If only one pair of tunnels is used, the raised elements run across the tunnel direction from one side of the pallet to the other side. In case of the pallet having two pairs of tunnel-shaped receptacles, i.e. altogether four tunnel-shaped receptacles, the raised elements connect two adjoining tunnel-shaped receptacles each; in this case, they include a right angle in the central area. As the tunnel-shaped receptacles are open at the bottom, the plastic pallet described in US 2013/0136573 A1 is nestable, i.e. if several pallets of the same design are stacked, they can be nested so that the total height of a stack of n pallets is substantially smaller than the n-fold of the height of a single pallet.
This nestability, though, is a disadvantage if several of these palettes loaded with filled bulk containers are to be stacked: In the same way as described above for wooden pallets, the plastic pallets weigh down on the flexible bulk containers below, which can thus bulge or expand into the open bottoms of the receptacles, because they can, to a certain extent, flexibly respond to a pressure load. As a consequence, the tines of a forklift entering the tunnel-shaped receptacles, which are open at the bottom, can damage the bulk container below the respective pallet. In addition, the nesting will impair the stability of a stack of several loaded pallets.
This is avoided in the system disclosed in WO 2010/151367 A1 and marketed by Sonoco under the trademark FirmaLoad™ WO 2010/151367 A1 describes various embodiments of a bulk container and a support system for bulk containers, with the support system being securable to the bulk container in various ways; also described is an embodiment in which bulk container and support system are inseparable. The support system consists of a plate-shaped bottom with a square base on which the container is, or can be, arranged. Arranged below the plate-shaped bottom are semitubular members receiving the tines of a forklift. These receptacles are preferably made of paperboard, but may also consist of some plastic. The semitubular receptacles are completely closed at the bottom, so that these pallets are not nestable, so that a stack of empty pallets will occupy much more space than nestable pallets would. Due to the concept, only two receptacles can be fastened to the bottom side or top side of the base, so that the pallet cannot be picked up by a forklift from each side. For emptying the bulk container, the base can be provided with a closable flap.